The Region; The Port Authority Thinks It's Time to Build Again

By CALVIN SIMS

Published: December 9, 1990

IN their quest for more money for large projects, Port Authority and transit officials are singing a familiar song to Trenton and Albany: public spending, especially now in times of austerity, would help bolster the region's economy by creating thousands of new jobs and spurring billions of dollars in private investment. To pay for these projects, Port Authority officials are seeking authorization to raise bridge and tunnel tolls as well as PATH train fares, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority is seeking capital funds from the state and Federal governments.

Stanley Brezenoff, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, estimates that the agency's proposed $5.4 billion plan would stimulate $3.8 billion in private investments and create 166,000 construction jobs and 20,000 new permanent jobs.

But critics of such capital spending said projects like those the agency is planning often take so long to develop and initiate that new jobs and economic benefits are not realized until many years later when the region's fiscal woes have passed.

"These billion-dollar investments have to be justified based on their long-term impact to improve mass transit and not on whether they help put a few thousand people to work in the next few years," said Raymond D. Horton, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit monitoring group financed by businesses in New York City.

But Mr. Brezenoff argued that his agency's capital plan would provide short-term benefits like jobs and economic growth as well as make the region's airports and marine terminals more competitive in the long term. "If we don't do something to insure that New York is a convenient place to ship goods and to travel to distant lands," Mr. Brezenoff said, "we will become a second-rate town and people will take their business elsewhere." The agency oversees Newark, LaGuardia and John. F. Kennedy airports, bridges, tunnels and PATH rail systems crossing the Hudson, the World Trade Center, the bus terminal and port operations.

The $5.4 billion the Port Authority is seeking would be used to continue major construction projects at all three airports that will ease congestion; finish rehabilitation work on the authority's Hudson River bridges and tunnels, and make improvements at the World Trade Center, which now needs some renovations if it is to attract prospective tenants, Mr. Brezenoff said.

Undertaking major rebuilding programs in times of economic decline, transit officials said, also enables them to finish more projects at less cost because contractors are more competitive in bidding for the work.

But in order for that to happen, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which receives little or no state and Federal subsidies for its capital programs, said it needs to raise the tolls on its bridges and tunnels to $4 from $3, and the fare on its PATH trains to $1.25 from $1, starting next year. The increases, which would pay for the capital program as well as daily operations, must be approved by the Port Authority board and the Governors of New York and New Jersey. A decision is expected sometime next month. Getting 'the Best Deals'

Many local politicians agree with transit officials that an infusion of capital into public transportation facilities would help boost a sagging economy. "We are in a position to get the best deals and the best people to do our infrastructure work at a time when they don't have much else to do," said Ruth Messinger, Manhattan Borough President. "If you put these people to work, you are fueling the local economy by generating taxes that would otherwise not be forthcoming."

Next year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates operates subways, commuter railroads and many bus routes in the New York City region, will complete a $16-billion, 10-year capital program to overhaul tracks, switches, signals and stations and buy new buses and subway cars. A recent study by the Port Authority found that the program has stimulated $19 billion in economic activity in the region, generated $741 million in tax revenues and created 14,800 jobs.

The transit agency is seeking an estimated $12 billion from the state and Federal governments to fund a new program that transit officials said is necessary to complete the rebuilding effort -- including equipment like new electronic turnstiles for subway stations -- and to maintain New York's mass transit system.

Mortimer Downing, the M.T.A.'s executive director, argued that there would be no delay in starting up capital projects at the M.T.A and the Port Authority. "We won't be starting projects from scratch," Mr. Downing said. "We are talking about projects that have been in the planning for years and that we could get underway in a matter of months."

Photo: Road construction at LaGuardia Airport. The Port Authority, arguing that such capital expenditures are especially good for the region's economy in troubled times, seeks to raise tolls and fares to do more building. (Vic DeLucia/The New York Times)